Take
by Fan Fan Girl
Summary: Complete. AND TOTALLY CRACKED OUT! I'm warning you! Don't you dare laugh! What if there was a problem when Xelha came back? What if she wasn't exactly... human? Xelha/Kalas, duh.
1. Part One

Take

Part One

_Once, long, long ago...  
__When the world still had an ocean...  
__People did not have any wings. They lived on the wide, wide land.  
__The ocean was a large pool, so large and so deep... that it would have swallowed this entire nation.  
__Within the ocean, an enormous fish called a "whale" would roam about freely.  
__The whale was as old as the world itself...  
__It was always singing mysterious, yet gentle, heart-warming songs.  
__An evil god appeared, and swallowed the entire ocean... every last drop of it...  
__He swallowed the whale, too, and it was never seen again._

* * *

"Kalas, over here!"

She tried to lift her head. There were voices echoing around her and she wanted to see, so she parted her eyelids. Sand spurted in the air by her head, and she knew that someone was running down the beach toward her.

"See? We would have gotten Xelha's pendant for you, but there's huuuuuge fish here!"

Xelha tried to reach out her hand but ended up only shifting her body so that she slid farther onto the beach. She heaved her lungs, the breath dry and coarse in her throat. It felt as though the sun was roasting her, and her skin was shriveled all away. _Kalas_...

"It's not like we're scared of it... We just don't want it to eat the pendant! Maybe you should kill it!"

Please help me... The water running over her legs was nice and cool, but she knew that she had to get back on land. She tried to kick her legs forward but they felt thick and heavy, and she just lurched a bit.

"Hey... You're right, that really is Xelha's pendant. We gotta get it back from that fish no matter what. This sounds like a job for Gibari — let's go find him!"

That voice, it belonged to Kalas. She tried to call out to him, but the sound got caught deep inside her. She moaned. _Kalas, Kalas... Don't go!_ Footsteps sounded across the beach and she knew that he was gone. She stopped struggling and rested her head with a sigh. A breeze whistled by and her skin felt as thought it was drying up. She thought she heard a crackle. Her eyes lolled about.

She spotted the pendant and, summoning all of her strength, she scooted over to it. _It's my pendant, the one I took from Geldoblame... Kalas wanted to save it. But what about me? Did he not see me?_

Her arms were too weak to move — she could hardly feel them, in fact — so she nudged the stone with her nose. The pendant buried itself in the sand.

Xelha let out a sigh and waited for Kalas to return. She wondered if she was waiting for death. The sun penetrated her skin and seemed to boil the flesh beneath. She kicked her legs in the water and ocean waves splashed onto her bare back; she wiggled in small relief. Her bones felt so heavy, and her body, so limp, like she was a sack of wet sand. _Ugh... Get me out of here..._

"There it is! Let's take care of this thing and get Xelha's pendant back!"

Xelha perked up, hearing Kalas' voice once again. She rolled her eyes toward land and saw four figures that were running toward her, but they wavered in her vision. She called out weakly. "Grooh...!" They looked right at her.

"Whoa now," Gibari said. "You sure you want to fight this thing? I don't think we need to carve it up unless it's trying to steal the pendant."

"Just look at it! It's all over the pendant." His voice darkened. "I'll do whatever it takes to get something of Xelha's back."

_What do you mean? I'm right here, Kalas! Why are you looking at me like that? I think I'm dying. Please help me..._ "Guuuh."

Kalas pulled out his sword and the two little boys, Cedr and Palolo, cheered. "We should just kill the thing and get it over with. No point in dawdling."

Gibari hefted his paddle. "You may be right... And you can take it from me that a little fishing never hurt anyone, ha ha ha! We could always take it back for dinner, ya know? Enough people came to see your guardian spirit off as it is." He closed his eyes and in a burst of light his wings of the heart emerged. "This should be an easy win."

Xelha filled with hope as they approached her. _Will you finally help me up? I haven't seen you two in so long; it's good to be back. I have no idea how long I've been out here but it sure it hot today and I think I might have a sunburn... Actually, now that I mention it, my whole body feels strange and I'm worried that I might be sick..._ "Ooo..."

They didn't reach down to help her up, though. They lifted their weapons. Xelha cried out as Kalas dug his sword into her shoulder and suddenly she saw her own blood run down into the water. "Gyaa!" _What are you doing!?_ She paddled her arms in the water, trying to get away, but it was too shallow and she flopped instead. She felt Gibari's paddle in her side, crushing her breath, drawing blood from her punctured skin. The skin flaked and stained chips floated into the water.

Xelha screamed, because she didn't know why they were hurting her and because she didn't want to fight back. She could never bring herself to hurt her friends, especially Kalas. And yet, he drove his blade into her helpless body... with a look of satisfaction in his eyes. _Why?_ She gasped, and Kalas began to dim in her vision. His face faded slowly to black as she reached out for him; she missed and fell into a strained, growing darkness.

* * *

When she woke up, she found herself floating in water. She looked around... nothing but ocean and sky. Xelha tested her arms — flippers, she soon realized — and pushed herself slowly through the water. She paid no mind to the gentle waves that lapped at her sides, and only focused on propelling herself forward.

She felt a dull sense of dread as her memories returned to her. The scenes played out in unbearable detail, right from moment of her confession to her bitter end. She could almost feel herself falling down all over the land as rain, trickling in from rivers and pooling in the center of the world. There, the Greythornes had gathered her essence and began to piece her back together. Just, not as a person...

Xelha lifted a flipper and stared at it mournfully. This body was not her own. It belonged to the Greythornes, and they had given her the power to control it. They were a part of her, and she a part of them...

She remembered her first reaction to the knowledge that she was no longer human. She had tried to kill herself. Although she didn't want to destroy herself, it wasn't as though she was exactly excited about living the rest of her years as the missing whale. And so she found herself gasping on the beach, her lungs straining and her skin dry and taut, wishing that Kalas were there and that he would hold her once again. She remembered bitterly that he never would, and that's when her consciousness began to blink in and out.

After that... they had killed her. Her friends had killed her and when all of her blood was washed back into the ocean, the Greythornes went back to work and built her a body again. Here she was, the water sliding over her skin, the currents tugging beneath her belly, and the smell of salt water overpowering in her nose... She closed her eyes and let herself sink down into the ocean, down and down, and she wondered if she would be able to drown.

Probably... not.

Xelha rolled languidly, frustrated that she couldn't wiggle her toes, or stretch her fingers, or even shed a tear.

* * *

She told herself she wouldn't... she told herself, she did!

_But I wanted to see you... _

She lingered in the water by the cliff, watching him. The surf sprayed about her head, but she floated with her eyes barely above the surface. Her lungs filled slowly and she exhaled.

_I promised... that I would never leave you..._

He sat on the rock looking contemplative, hands hanging loosely over his knees. He studied the horizon with a face set like stone, and the only movement about him was blue hair thrashing in the wind. Though she floated right in his line of vision, he didn't seem to see her. He didn't see anything.

_And I never will._

She flicked her tail and moved forward a bit. His image on the beach grew sharper and she saw something dangling from his pocket. When she saw that it was a chain, she could almost feel it in her hands. Fins. She gave another helpless flick.

Kalas noticed her then. At first, it was just the movement of his eyes and the slight tilt of his head that told her. He watched her, didn't give any thought to her, but he watched her and didn't blink. Xelha advanced slowly. She hardly knew what to think, and what if he tried to kill her again? She froze in the water.

Then his eyes began to glaze over again. Xelha couldn't stand it — she wanted him to see her! — and she began to reveal herself. It was as though she rose up in the water before him naked, blushing like a virgin but she couldn't blush, and instead of herself, her jaw jutted brutally above the water. _This is me_, she thought. _I'm a fish now. This is the real me! Do you see?_

He barely glanced her way.

Xelha, her broad skull held majestically in the air, sank back down, deflated.

She grieved that he would never see her again. She couldn't speak, and in this state he wouldn't be looking for her, and she decided that all was hopeless, and that she had better give up.

* * *

A/N: Um yes, it's crack? I usually get plotbunnies like this. I've always wanted to write something fluffy and cute but nooooo. I get Xelha's-been-turned-into-a-fish-now-write-a-story plotbunnies.

Anyways, there will be only be one more chapter to this and I will update once it's written. Review, pretty please?


	2. Part Two

Take

Part Two  
_  
Remember this name, never forget... The name of the god was Malpercio...  
Malpercio sucked up the entire ocean, but choked and drowned in the very water he swallowed.  
The whale, however, will always be with us...  
It lives on in our hearts.  
Close your eyes, and listen...  
You can hear the whale's songs.  
Even today...  
The ocean will return someday...  
Until then, the whale will be waiting. Waiting patiently._

* * *

The net strained under her bulk. Xelha eyed the men above her, watching their teamed efforts as closely as if their hands were coated with oil. But they did their job well, and lowered her safely into the tank, shouting to each other with each practiced movements. She shivered as warm water surged up over her skin; soon the nets loosened and she could maneuver in the tank on her own. Cheers sounded above her, tinny in the water. From the corner of her eyes she saw the workers climb down their ladders to gather and watch her. She floated and stared back at them, flicking her flippers occasionally. A variety of faces surrounded her, but his didn't seem to be in their ranks...

No, wait, there he was—? Ah, yes. He stood off to one side, slightly detached from the group. Solemn and alone.

It was almost strange, considering that he was the one who was sponsoring the aquarium. He wouldn't join in the camaraderie, and probably wouldn't thank them, either. He seemed too caught up in his own thoughts to remember to be polite. It was a pity; she saw him looking stormier than he had ever been before.

Oh, but what a joy when he had come to the sea that day, a team of men grouped behind him, scowling out across the lapping waves. She had been drifting aimlessly through the water when he arrived, waiting for someone to visit her lonely beach. Almost three years had passed since the ocean had returned.

Ever since people had found themselves floating in sea instead of sky, they had been developing new technology that would allow them to travel, and now the seas were littered with passenger ships and sail boats. Xelha, self-conscious of her new marine body, had been forced to hide in one of the less populated areas, a small cove off the coast of Mira.

Kalas often went there, too. Usually alone.

Yet he came to the shoreline one day with a group of men who were shouting something about finding the _whale_. Xelha had heard this, floating nearby. Her eyes had widened. Was Kalas there to finally get her?

She felt stiff at first, but she slowly paddled towards them. As she cut through the waves her heart beat deep in the cavern of her chest. She felt a shudder course through her body.

Xelha reached the shore with a shaky flip of her tail. What would Kalas think? Would he recognize her, after all that time? Did he realize what had happened to her? ...Did he even care?

Kalas had spotted her quickly; he was used to seeing her large body and shapeless black eyes after all his trips to the coastline. He called for the team of men, pointing at her. That's her. That's the one.

The men whistled and began untangling the threaded material that they had brought with them. Xelha watched the humans on shore, her gaze drifting between Kalas and the gang of men with their net.

Their net, which had brought her to the aquarium.

She stared up wistfully.

Their net, which shook in the water and was soon sliding up the side of the tank. Men stood around on the outside, shaking hands and clapping backs.

The job was done, and they had every right to congratulate each other. The tank — simply labeled "The Whale" — was the largest in the aquarium. Nearby smaller glasses brimming with colorful fish were displayed, and beside her was an empty tank that glowed with the light of yellow bulbs. The workers moved in the deep and dark aquarium, admiring their work. They would leave soon.

When the cheering died down and the crowds began to thin and disperse, he finally approached from the shadows. He stopped before her tank, his head down. He seemed to be studying "The Whale" name plate, but then he looked up, and she would have blushed if she could.He pulled out a rag that was tucked into his belt and wiped the sign in front of her tank. He gave her a look and began to slowly retreat into the shadows. The echo of a door shutting sounded through the room.

* * *

There were no lights in the aquarium, just the beams that lit up the tanks. Children ran by, staring in wonder, laughing, pointing at the smaller fish that whipped back and forth. Older people passed by shaking their heads in wonder, smiling vaguely. Occasionally some would linger in front of the tank of "The Whale" and look into her tired eyes.

She wanted to smile, to tell them, _Yes, this was my sacrifice_. The day passed slowly and all the lights went out.

The next day her water was lit up again with its warm white light and she swam lazy laps around the edges. The people came in to watch her, crowding around exclaiming at her tremendous size and blue-green color until outside the sun went down and the lights of her tank were snapped off. Xelha watched them woodenly. She closed her eyes and waited for the next day to come.

Night turned to day turned to night again and Xelha drifted along the bottom of her tank.

Each day felt like a dot of mold growing on her skin, growing slowly but surely. She felt strongly the passage of time. Each day dribbled and collected and grew into a week, the weeks piled and formed months, eventually there were enough heavy months to make up years. She drifted in time, marking her life only by the points of light when she saw Kalas.

He wandered past the different exhibitions, stopping every now and then to catch a glimpse of the glimmering forms of fish sliding through the water. Xelha hung limply in the center of her tank, as usual. She stared at him now with no fear or embarrassment; she had long since realized that he no longer knew her. He was living without her, growing older, moving on and possibly forgetting. It killed her, but at least she saw him.

She watched as he stood before her tank. He certainly had grown older. His hair was light and tousled and his mouth was firm and bitter; dark lines encircled his eyes. He stared at her as helplessly as she did at him.

_Kalas... Do you...?_

Kalas leaned in to turn off the bulbs of light that illuminated her tank. He sighed in the dim, empty room, and stood with his shoulders slumped before the tank. He stood for a long time. Soon he started mumbling to himself.

"Wanted to do something for her..."

He shuffled his feet slightly and studied the sign; she swam up to the side of the glass, straining to hear.

"She had to die for this, so that some big dumb fish could come back to life. I hate that things had to end this way. The only reason why I made this place was so that her life wouldn't go to waste."

He sighed.

"It's not like I have anything to do here anymore..."

He put a hand up to the glass.

"I just wanted to remember Xelha."

She slowly bumped her nose along the side of it.

"I want her back."

* * *

Xelha waited for Kalas to come the next day. Normally, a hired worker would come to feed her and the other sea animals, but when the people of Mira stopped patronizing of the aquarium soon the sponsor himself had been the only one to come. But that day Kalas didn't show up.

She waited, ignoring the stillness of the room. It was dark but she waited through the day and night.

He didn't show up the next day, either. Or the one after that.

Soon the stench of rotting fish began to fill the aquarium. Xelha became sick with hunger and repulsion. Down the aisle Pauly the Pollywhale grew limp.

Xelha sank to the bottom of her tank. She slowly closed her eyes.

* * *

When she opened them she found herself floating in the ocean, the sunlight above dazzling and the clouds climbing across the sky. She froze, barely breathing, drowning in the feeling of real sunlight on her skin and clean water sweeping up against her sides. Xelha flapped her arms and floated through the water.

The water splashed over her skin as though over smooth rock. She delighted in it, pushing memories of the stinking, sagging days in the black aquarium away. She was free now, to go where she wanted and live where she felt like it.

Her mighty fins drove the water away and she shot deep into the ocean, spinning like a bullet, feeling the glorious water glide over her. Tiny bubbles streamed behind her and the glow of the sun lit up the water. Here was the gift of life, of a young, healthy body and freedom.

But as she flew through the sea she began to realize that she had been given this life only after having died.

At this thought her heart grew heavy. Kalas hadn't returned. He was an old man. He would be dying soon, if he hadn't already.

And here she was, immortal.

Xelha closed her eyes and pumped her fins, rushing to feel the burn of exertion in her body.

She would live forever and he would _die_.

Her muscles drove harder, clenched with pain.

She would keep going forever. Even if she tried to kill herself, she would keep coming back.

The horizon was so far away.

Her muscles began to ache, clenching with each stroke of her powerful arms. The water rocketed behind her; she didn't know where her nose was pointed but she was racing to get away, racing into infinity.

He would _die_.

The pain burnt the fibers of her body and slammed her bones. With one last push she flew in a white flash and was paralyzed. The ocean stretched all around her, and as she lay panting, pain shooting through her limbs, she stared at the horizon. She tried to move but was unable to. The waves splashed at her sides.

Kalas would _die_.

She blinked painfully at the sky.

_Why?_

The wind swept sprays of water over her face. She blinked as the droplets showered her. Clouds dance by above, and she noticed the sun moving slowly across the sky. She breathed out, feeling water creep over the top of her skin.

She sank down into the ocean, surrounded by the salty water that she had given her life for. She wondered if she was dead. If this was the afterlife.

Sunlight faded as she sank into the cool depths of the ocean. Her body drifted slowly, another cloud in another sky, trailing the endless depths, a wandering darkness.

Another millennium seemed to pass as she lurked beneath the waters. Xelha was numb; her fins wouldn't move and her snout felt cold. She wondered if she was dying again.

Even if she died, she would continue living.

So she drifted. Sand scooted slowly. A school of fish glided by and water pushed against her. Currents moved slowly, rocking back and forth.

She existed.

One day she lifted her head up and wondered what to do. She remembered that he was probably dead. Probably all of them were.

What to do?

She put her head back down and existed.

Eventually she moved her fins and pressed herself upward. She drifted slowly to the sky. It felt like it took years to reach the surface. When the water broke over her skin, she was amazed at the intensity of the sun. Looking around, she saw that she was nowhere.

Xelha began to swim in a random direction because somewhere, there had to be an end. The ocean couldn't go on forever there had to be a beach to rest on. She traveled for miles, and days passed, and she fed on small fish and plankton; she felt like a whale, she felt as though she fit into the role, and she swam toward land. Eventually a spot appeared on the horizon; the waves and her weak limbs carried her there. The spot grew into an island.

She coasted along the shoreline, watching the run of mountains go up and down as she sailed by. They were shrouded in mist, distant. A faint rainbow arched over the tops of them, fading in and out of the clouds.

Xelha realized that it was Anuenue. She knew that if she looked to the east she would find Diadem. To the north was Alfard. The last time she had visited the islands was years ago... Many years... perhaps forty or fifty. All those familiar landmarks and places would still exist, but the people would have all died. Everybody she knew, except Queen Corellia, would be gone. Xelha gazed out again at the cool peaks of the mountains of Anuenue. Somewhere beyond them lived another woman who had lived past her allotted lifespan. She wondered why anyone would ever make the choice to live forever.

_I wouldn't care if I disappeared from this world. There's nothing for me here. What can I do, besides swimming and soaking in my memories?_

_I'm beginning to wonder at this exchange. I gave my human life to free the ocean and take on the form of the whale. Was it worth it?_

_Did I make the right choice? The people of Anuenue and Mira and Wazn can finally have something they long ago learned to live without, but is it fair? _

_Is it fair that I'm alive? Is it fair that I continue existing?_

She drifted idly by the beach_._

* * *

Xelha let the waves carry her across the sea. She hadn't moved a limb in weeks, and the tides had carried her away from Anuenue. She watched as the occasional sail boat skidded by, or as an ocean liner charged through the waves. She rolled on the ripples created.

She refused to eat and her body shriveled in the bright sun. Color drained from her world; the ocean that was once so fresh and blue took on a pale quality. Her skin was sinking into the crevices between her bones and she hardly cared. Soon she died.

* * *

Later on she died again.

* * *

Xelha despaired. Her world was her body. There was no escape, no matter where she swam or what she did. Alone, she could accomplish nothing. There was no happiness in idle exploration, no enthusiasm in the sighting of an island landscape.

On a silent drift past Diadem, she recalled a story told by an old woman there. How Malpercio, the evil god, had swallowed the ocean and left the earth barren. For a moment she reflected that it would have been nice if he really had.

Xelha wondered what would happen if she tried to take the ocean back. Would it also take her immortality?

Swallowing something as vast as the ocean was impossible. There was no way to do it, she was sure.

...Unless she used her infinite lifetimes. She would swallow the sea until she burst, and then recycle her body and continue her task. She could use forever taking back the right to die.

Xelha stared out at the ocean before her. The breaking waves that stretched to the bottom of the sky. It would take forever.

But if there were no ocean, there would be no way or reason for her to ever come back.

She sucked in an experimental stream through her teeth.

Another stream. She steeled her mind and sucked harder until the water began to whirlpool into her mouth. She opened her jaws and the water poured in.

Soon the sip had turned into an inundation of seawater. The fish around her were swept in and floating seaweed flailed as it passed by her teeth. She started choking. Her belly felt full, but she gasped and forced herself to drink more.

She was drowning — drowning, drowning, drowning — and she couldn't breathe. She was beginning to get dizzy. Water pushed against her belly, pooled in her lungs, pressed against her cavernous mouth. She kept drinking, swallowing deliriously.

Soon the water fought back and her throat swelled and she began to gag. She paused, fighting to keep it down. When the rush of fear and distress had passed, she parted her lips and drank more.

She felt sick. She felt more than sick; she felt as though her body would explode. Every organ was flooded with water. She drank until her eyes and nose and mouth burned. Her throat felt sore and raw. She gagged; it passed, and she continued. Water flowed into every part of her body.

There came a point where she couldn't force the muscles in her mouth to push the water down. Her body floated awkwardly in the Ocean and she gasped to fill her lungs with breath. She rolled in the sea, bloated, leaking water from her mouth and nose. She sloshed when she closed her mouth.

Drowning. This is what it felt like. This loose, cold, separated feeling. Like filling a pouch until it was ready to pop. Until her eyes were ready to bug out. Her whole body, going numb, losing feeling. She was dying.

She was bitter.

Xelha thought how cruel it was, in the game of give and take, to always take and never to give.

* * *

A/N: I finished! I don't remember why I wrote this, but I finished, and that's all that matters, right? I can at least say that writing this story was a wonderful experience.

By the way, don't you think that Sagi's experience with Greythornes in BKO sort of supports this story? Switching hearts and all that jazz? Don't you think? Lemme know... and lemme know what you think about the ending of this story. Thank you so very much for reading.


End file.
